Emissions Testing Has Final Loophole

TALLAHASSEE — If your automobile registration expires this month and you haven't yet had your car emissions tested, you might want to postpone the registration renewal until June 30.

Just be ready. A lot of other people might get the same idea. Here's why:

Emissions testing centers will shut their doors at the close of business on June 29 -- a day earlier than what state officials had thought the program would end.

State Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles officials said Thursday that the correct closing date for the program became apparent after Gov. Jeb Bush signed legislation on Wednesday closing the emission testing centers.

The program is closing one day before the end of the month because the state's contract with the two companies that run the centers was set to end on June 29 in anticipation that a new contract would be effective June 30.

As a result, customers entering a tax collector's office on June 30 or later will not have to show proof of emissions testing -- a tailpipe inspection that costs drivers $10 -- to register their vehicle.

Drivers whose registrations expire June 30 or later also are able to renew by mail, without waiting in line to have their tailpipe emissions tested.

On average, more than 21,000 people register their vehicles on any given day. State officials say they suspect that considerably more will be doing so on June 30.

"It just hit us when [Bush] signed that bill [Wednesday] that the program really expired a day ahead of the normal end of the month," said Tom Joyce, assistant director of the state Division of Motor Vehicles. "We were so fixated on whether he was going to sign it or not that we just didn't pay attention to the contract date."

The two companies that operate the centers, Environmental Systems and Gordon-Darby Inc., lobbied to keep the program. But Florida's air has improved in most regions, including South Florida, since the program began nine years ago, and the state's leaders took the opportunity to eliminate what they saw as an unnecessary program that irritated many drivers. The decision, however, has been condemned by environmental groups and the American Lung Association of Florida, which said patients with lung disorders, asthma and severe allergies may be harmed by breathing automobile exhaust.